Minister Of Health Touches On Men's Smoking Habit And The Missing Opportunity For Children To Get Animal Protein

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that smoking behavior in the family could deprive parents of the opportunity to provide animal protein to their children.

"What is the relationship between cigarettes and animal protein? If gentlemen smoke, this will eliminate the opportunity to buy eggs which are a source of animal protein," said Minister of Health Budi in the Talk Show Animal Protein Prevents Stunting as reported by ANTARA, Friday, 10 February.

Budi said that the biggest determinant of stunting was during pregnancy and when the child finished the exclusive breastfeeding period which required more Complementary Food Supplements (PMT), especially animal protein as an effort to prevent children from being stunted.

"Animal protein to prevent stunting is found in eggs, milk, fish, and meat," he said.

According to the Minister of Health, smoking behavior can eliminate the opportunity to buy eggs. This is in line with research showing that families can spend up to three packs of cigarettes a day, which should be enough to buy eggs.

“The money the family spends to buy cigarettes reaches three packs a day, which should be able to buy eggs. Therefore, I remind the family to stop smoking and buy eggs as an important nutritional intake for children," said Budi.

The Minister of Health reminds families in Indonesia to divert their cigarette money to fulfill the nutrition of children and pregnant women. Budi asked every family member to ensure that the baby in the womb was malnourished. In addition, don't let the mother be malnourished and have anemia.

Deputy for Training, Research, and Development of the BKKBN Muhammad Rizal M Damanik added, if it is related to smoking behavior, the data on household spending on cigarettes is far greater than for spending on nutritious food.

"It's unfortunate, even though stunting is a growth and development disorder due to malnutrition or repeated infections. Cigarettes are one of the factors that hinder the growth and development of infants," he said.

Because of this, Rizal asked the Family Assistance Team (TPK) to further improve counseling because there are still many people who do not understand the importance of nutritious food sources and do not use the funds to buy cigarettes.

"Right now we are talking about Indonesia in the next 20 years because the stunting problem is an intergenerational problem. If there are many babies now who are stunted, this will be a problem for future generations. Therefore, it is very important to deal with the problem of stunting," he said.